• Steve Bunce

Golovkin's knockout run up there with the best

Gennady Golovkin destroyed Marco Antonio Rubio on Saturday night © Getty Images

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There is no doubting that Gennady Golovkin has suddenly become one of boxing's brightest stars and his name has been attached to a dozen or so big fights.

The Kazak middleweight has concussive power in either hand, a frozen heart and so far in 13 consecutive world title fights he has stopped, dropped and beaten every single opponent to an often bloody pulp.

Buncey's Vault

Christy Martin's fight against Marcia Nieves-Garcia never took place thanks to a bizarre twist © AP

• Roberto Duran was there, Evander Holyfield was there, the tickets had sold - and then it all started to go wrong in June 1998 in New York.
• This is what I wrote: "Boxing officials are to review their rules on women's boxing after a routine pre-fight medical found that a Mexican woman was more than five months pregnant."
• Marcia Nieves-Garcia, who had a one-year old son called Angel, had been unaware that she was pregnant and had continued sparring in preparation for her fight against Christy Martin at Madison Square Garden. She was due to earn £9,375 for her fight.
• An inquiry was promised by the executive director of the New York commission. The show soon collapsed when Henry Akinwande failed a blood test and his world heavyweight fight with Holyfield was scrapped.
• As reported in The Daily Telegraph, June 6, 1998.

At first I just took that total and dropped it into a long, long list of statistics that I keep. It found a home next to world champions with a prison background and men that failed more than six times to win a world title. I left it there to stew for a few hours and then it occurred to me that 13 consecutive stoppages or knockouts in world title fights was mightily impressive and not just another number.

Golovkin's run started in the summer of 2010 in Panama when he won the interim WBA title with a first round knockout of Milton Nunez, a few months later a third-round stoppage of Nilson Tapia in Kazakhstan set the ball rolling on his defences and also his globetrotting. He defended twice in 2011 with good wins over former wold champion Kassim Ouma in Panama and a stunning one round, one punch knockout out of tough Lajuan Simon in Germany. The two minutes, 17 seconds of the Simon fight took place in front of about 50 paying customers - he was not always an attraction.

Golovkin was on a roll and also in search of recognition; in 2012 he blasted two more, in 2013 four went quick and the American market suddenly discovered him. Last Saturday's massacre of Marco Antonio Rubio was his third of the year and takes his tally to 13 world title fights in four years and all have ended inside the distance.

At the moment heavyweight Deontay Wilder is on an unbeaten stoppage sequence of 32, in the Forties Billy Fox won his first 36 early before losing in his first world title challenge and world champion Joe Louis managed 15 consecutive stoppage defences of his world title but right in the middle of the sequence is a disqualification win. It was also the Brown Bomber's Bum of the Month campaign.

In the Nineties, Ricardo Lopez went 26 world title fights without a loss but never came close to 13 consecutive and genuine stoppages. In the Seventies, Wilfredo Gomez, arguably one of the greatest fighters in history, won 17 quick during his world title reign but the sequence included three non-title fights and was therefore not consecutive world title fights like Golovkin. The ferocious duo of feared bangers Ruben Olivares and Carlos Zarate ruined a combined total of 142 men from the 155 that they beat. However, they never quite managed 13 consecutive stoppages in world title fights.

It is true that Oscar De La Hoya and a lot of other fighters have had more stoppages in world title fights than Golovkin, and I'm certainly not suggesting that the Kazak fighter is better than Gomez, Zarate, Olivares or Louis. It is, however, a good statistic to have and the opponents have mostly been acceptable modern challengers. Louis and De La Hoya both met men in world title fights that were similar to many of Golovkin's victims - there are a few stinkers buried in the records of the greats.

In the next six to twelve months, as the big fights for Golovkin either take place or become victims of stupidity, greed and arrogance, there is every chance that we will all find out just how good he is. I can't wait.

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